Tata Sky review

The cable connection at my house was pathetic as i was getting bad quality picture. The cable operator of our area was not at all helpful and despite calling him several times, things didn't get any better so i decided to get DTH connection. I also considered set top box but i din't wanted to deal with my cable operator again. I did research on the web, read reviews in mouthshut, broadband forum and several blogs. I also visited their websites and checked their packages.

Currently in India there are 6 DTH service providers

1. Dish TV
2. Tata Sky
3. DD Direct
4. Airtel Digital TV
5. Big TV
6. Sun direct

My package(What i need) should include all Kannada channels + English news channels + Sports + Business + infotainment(Natgeo, discovery etc).

Finally i shortlisted two of the following.
1. Tata Sky
2. Airtel Digital TV

I rejected the following

1. Sundirect (Cheapest of all but lots of unwanted channels, sports package is expensive, English news channels(CNN & BBC) were missing.
2. Dishtv (First to offer DTH in Indian, saw lot of negetive feedback on the web
3. Big TV (Best channel package among all, again lot of negetive feedback)
4. DD-Direct (I have moved on from Doordarshan era, never considered it)

My house owner had Tata Sky connection and picture quality was good but i found Tata Sky to be expensive among all. I went to Airtel office in Vijayanagar and enquired about the DTH connection. They said it will take minimum 15 days for me to get the connection. They lost one customer because of that. Why should anybody wait 15 days to get a DTH connection? phew!!.I called Tata Sky customer care and booked Tata Sky. I was told within 24 hours installation will be done. As they said two guys came to my house and installed Tata Sky next day. I took one year warranty on set top box for Rs.199 and Star Cricket as an add-on package for Rs.25. It's been three weeks since i am using Tata Sky and here are my observations.

Pros
1. Picture quality is great
2. So far i didn't had any problem with the customer service.
3. Apart from sports i get most channels i want in south saver pack(109 channels).

Cons
1. Having separate remotes for TV and STB is a nuisance. Airtel scores over TATA in this as they have same remote for TV and STB.
2. Bad business ethics!!. In these 3 weeks they already blocked all channels twice. I didn't pay for Star cricket channel upfront and it was given one day free to me. Next day when i came home from my office i was not getting any channels because i didn't recharge Star cricket.

Imagine you brought South Jumbo pack for Rs.2600 a year and star cricket as an add on package for Rs.25 a month on August 1. On September 1 if you forgot to recharge Star cricket, they will block your South Jumbo package along with Star cricket. If you call customer care and ask to discontinue star cricket, they will charge per day usage (say 80 paise) even after blocking that channel. When asked, they said it is computer generated. Computer doesn't have it's own brain right?. Everything is with the way it is programmed. The name TATA reminds me of JRD Tata and Ratan Tata and i have high regards for them but i wonder is TATA sky belongs to the same TATA group.

3. One day when it rained, it stopped working and it took 15 minutes to resume service.

What i paid?.
Set top box + Installation(1 month subscription free) Rs.1999
Start Cricket add on package Rs.25
1 year extended warranty Rs. 199
--------------------------
Total Rs.2223

Is it worth?.
If your cable connection is good, just get a set top box to enhance your viewing experience and don't go for DTH. If you have a bad connection, then you may consider it.